Nigeria will on Monday begin the verification and payment of ex-workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL) in Diaspora more than 16 years after they were laid off.
The exercise, which has been carried out in Nigeria, would hold at the Nigeria High Commission office in London, United Kingdom (UK), Mr. John Waitono, Acting Director, Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), said on Sunday in Abuja.
According to him, the two weeks exercise will be conducted by an Inter-Ministerial Team to be coordinated by PICA, (PICA is under the Ministry of Finance) and comprises the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Auditor-General Office, Accountant-General Office and others agencies.
He said that the Federal Government approved the conduct of the exercise for those in diaspora in London, due to the role the city played as the European Operational Office of the defunct NAL.
“The essence of the exercise is to alleviate the hardship being experienced for more than a decade while waiting for the benefits.
“It will also save them the stress and financial burden of traveling to the country for the exercise, including other logistics involved in coming to Nigeria for their entitlements,” he said.
He recalled that a similar exercise had taken place in Kano, Lagos and Enugu centres to attend to more than 6, 000 ex-workers, following the approval of N22.6 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari, to pay for their entitlements.
The Federal Government had paid the first 50 percent of the entitlements to the ex-workers, who had completed their verification exercise in October 2018.
Waitono said that the president apologised for the over a decade neglect by previous administrations and gave the directive that the exercise for the ex-staff in diaspora be done in London to save them the cost and stress of traveling down to Nigeria.
MM/GIK/APA